Etymologies

Middle English affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiō, affectiōn-, from affectus, past participle of afficere, to affect, influence; see affect1.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

From French affection, from Latin affectionem, from affectio; see affect. (Wiktionary)

Examples

"She will rather die than give any sign of affection," says Benedick of Beatrice; and in that line Shakspere reveals one of the two essential traits of genuine modern coyness -- _dissemblance of feminine affection_.

_The affection which we rightly have for what is lovely must ordinate justly_, _in due manner end proportion_, _become the object of a new affection_, _or be itself beloved_, _in order to our being endued with that virtue which is the principle of a good life_.

_how_, I say, to _set affection against affection_, and to master one by another, even as we used to hunt beast with beast, and fly bird with bird, which otherwise, percase, we could not so easily recover. '

With this there is united the complex sentiment which we term affection -- a sentiment which, as it exists between those of the same sex, must be regarded as an independent sentiment, but one which is here greatly exalted.

What I have striven to say is, that I forgive my brother, not because I love him, but because of the affection I bear him; also that this affection is the product of reason, is the sum of the judgments I have achieved.

Then the moon slips up into the sky from behind the hills, and the fisherman begins to think of home, and of the foolish, fond old rhymes about those whom the moon sees far away, and the stars that have the power to fulfil wishes -- as if the celestial bodies knew or cared anything about our small nerve-thrills which we call affection and desires!

The practice of infanticide, for selfish reasons, was, as we shall see in later chapters, horribly prevalent among many of the lower races, and even where the young were tenderly reared, the feeling toward them was hardly what we call affection -- a conscious, enduring devotion -- but a sort of animal instinct which is shared by tigers and other fierce and cruel animals, and which endures but a short time.